1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electronic device. In particularly, the present invention relates to an electronic device with a switchable user interface and an electronic device with accessible touch operation.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with the advancement of pointing stick and touch pad technique, touch screens is being adopted as a new input interface for replacing traditional keyboards in electronic products, such as notebook computers, cell phones, and portable multi-media players etc. For example, when a user uses a traditional cell phone to input text or select a menu item, the user has to click at the keyboard while looking at the image displayed on the screen at the same time. However, if a cell phone having a touch screen is used, the user can input text or start an application program directly on the screen by using a stylus. Accordingly, touch screen is a more convenient input technique.
The sizes of touch screens on some compact handheld electronic devices are very limited therefore the sizes of menu items in the user interfaces have to be reduced, so that the screens can display as many function options as possible. For example, regarding a handheld electronic device built in with a Windows operating system (OS), the Windows OS supports many different functions and these functions are mostly displayed in the “start” function list as hierarchic menu items. Thus, if a user wants to start a specific function, the user has to click at the “start” function list, then looks for the menu item corresponding to the specific function in the function list, and eventually clicks at the menu item in the function list to start the specific function. A desired menu has to be opened through such hierarchical selection, which is very inconvenient to a handheld electronic device.
Besides, if the user loses the stylus or forgets to bring it with him/her, the user may have to input text or select menu items with his/her finger. In this case, an incorrect menu item may be selected and accordingly an undesired user interface may be activated due to the small size of the menu. Then the user has to return to the previous level of the user interface and re-selects the menu item to activate the correct user interface. As described above, unnecessary operation time is consumed by such situation. Accordingly, how to allow a user to activate various user interfaces in a touch screen directly with his/her finger and accordingly to operate on these user interfaces conveniently is one of the most important factors for improving the convenience in the operation of a electronic device.
In addition, the case of a traditional handheld electronic device is usually closely attached around the display area of the touch display and is much higher than the touch sensing surface of the touch display. The extruding part of the case may encumber the operation of an input tool (for example, a finger or a stylus) and may hurt the user's finger, therefore the user cannot touch the pixels at the edges of the display area quickly and effectively and accordingly cannot operate the user interface smoothly. In addition, the non-display area of the touch display may also sense touches and is usually covered by the case of a handheld electronic device, which not only obstructs the operation of the user but also restricts the application of the touch display.